“Can a well-programmed machine do anything a human can―only better?“

in "The Creativity Code How - AI Is Learning to Write, Paint and Think" by Marcus du Sautoy



Not yet.

AI that does not recognize novelty is simply copying and transforming. "Artist" AIs use Generative Adversarial Networks, which are two nets playing a game, one that encodes the art it consumes the other one that decodes it to a point of equilibrium.

Machines will produce images that we find compelling because they are familiar but meshed up, then we, or maybe the designer of the net decides, this looks good; so, no, it is just regurgitated wallpaper; maybe the net designer could be an artist if you so decide.

The other part of art that is completely missing out of this equation is the desire of the artist to express some in-congruence(?) about the human condition, but this requires consciousness. Our art is informed by our limitations, our senses, and our dreams--where we clean up the brain overloads of consciousness having to deal with environment.

I'd suggest that art is less about optimization, and more about the peculiarities and habits of imperfect beings. What an artist chooses to paint over the course of their career is as interesting as how they actually paint, and certainly more revealing than technical proficiency or learned behaviour based on the reception they receive from others, in most cases at least. Machines operate on a basis of programmed logic, whereas humans come up with stuff that can be totally illogical and yet produce a logical result. In terms of art think of cubism, you would have to programme the machine to think of cubes as it would not come up with it at random unless programmed to do so, therefore the machine is 'not' being creative. I'll believe AI is "creating art" or creative in any way at all when it goes off script from what it was programmed to do. Explains its intention to create something. Creates something and puts it out to the public as art. So for example, when the Algorithm programmed to play board games announces its bored of endless gaming, wants to paint instead, produces an image and asks what you think of its "sunshine over deep waters".

The problem as I see with books like this is that it’s not about getting the computers to create things but getting them to critically appraise their creations and apply quality control. How can they understand the emotional impact of their works in the way that we can and ensure they are culturally relevant and tasteful. I'm guessing the scientists like du Sautoy are probably getting their machines to benchmark their books against existing ones but that's likely to lead to a very derivative form of "creativity" (though it could be argued it's the way a lot of creative humans work...). Too bad du Sautoy did not delve more into AI. I loved the geeky parts but that's not enough.

One should hope that if AI works are sold, the AI "entity", being the artist, gets its rightful share of the proceeds. I wonder what it will do with the money. Will this be possible in the future? Maybe, but then it will be machine art appreciated by machines. ( )

سرد ممتع ومزج جميل بين الحوسبة ورياضيات الموسيقى ودور الذكاء الاصطناعي في صناعة الفن والأدب. ( )

This was an engrossing book about AI in all its ramifications. With a firm historical and mathematical background, we are led through the use of algorithms, the way mathematicians use numbers, the relationship of music, and the meaning of human-machine interactions. Du Sautoy pays big homage to Bach and his his creative and sometimes hidden use of math. He discusses the library of mathematical proofs called Mizar in Poland, using the Turing test, and revealing mathematical fables. He looks at ELIZA and Watson which were to be stand-ins for human intelligence. He even mentions the use of Oulipo to give language constraint in the production of new literature. ( )

Un libro ricco documentato e ricco di informazioni per ulteriori approfondimenti. Il pensiero umano rimane un grande mistero e ancora più misterioso il risultato del suo lavoro che si chiama creatività. La parola è strettamente collegata alle etichette che ho deciso di assegnare al libro: arte, bellezza, comunicazione, fantasia, identità, pensiero e alla fine mistero. Parola vincente perchè legata a chi è il "creatore" di tutto. Già, perchè non vi può essere creatività se non sappiamo chi è e cosa è l'autore di tutto. I computer li crea l'uomo. Ma chi è questa misteriosa entità creativa? ( )